--- title: Gun Tattoo Mistaken for Gun in Maine description: Workers in the area thought it was the real thing and called the police canonical: https://time.com/30385/police-thought-this-mans-gun-tattoo-was-real-so-they-surrounded-his-house/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-19T17:41:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:56.675Z og:title: Gun tattoo on man's stomach mistaken for gun in his pocket og:description: Workers in the area thought it was the real thing and called the police og:url: https://time.com/30385/police-thought-this-mans-gun-tattoo-was-real-so-they-surrounded-his-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74e739fcb7402ee1/69868622cd6848d1cb093aae/gun-tattoo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Gun-Tattoo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gun tattoo on man's stomach mistaken for gun in his pocket twitter:description: Workers in the area thought it was the real thing and called the police twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74e739fcb7402ee1/69868622cd6848d1cb093aae/gun-tattoo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Police Thought This Man's Gun Tattoo Was Real So They Surrounded His House  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 19, 2014 5:41 PM UTC  In this Tuesday, March 18, 2014, photo, Michael Smith, left, stands beside a Somerset County Sheriff deputy outside his home in Norridgewock, Maine. In this Tuesday, March 18, 2014, photo, Michael Smith, left, stands beside a Somerset County Sheriff deputy outside his home in Norridgewock, Maine.David Leaming / Morning Sentinel / AP  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Mar 19, 2014 5:41 PM UTC Maine State Police armed with assault rifles moved in on a man’s house because he was reported to have a gun on him. Turns out he did, but it was a gun…tattoo. You know, just a tattoo of a life-size handgun made to look like a weapon tucked into the waistband of someone’s pants. The _Morning Sentinel_ [reports](http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/Norridgewock%5Fman%5Fwith%5Fgun%5Ftattoo%5Fwakes%5Fup%5Fto%5Farmed%5Fpolice%5F.html) that a man in Norridgewock, Maine, named Michael Smith was woken up by a tree removal crew trimming branches Tuesday morning. Shirtless, he went outside and asked the workers to stop. He went back to sleep, but the workers thought he had a gun and called the police. Troopers surrounded the premises, but once the officers realized the gun was just some ink, they did not file charges. Lesson learned: always keep your shirt on. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/30385/police-thought-this-mans-gun-tattoo-was-real-so-they-surrounded-his-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/30385/police-thought-this-mans-gun-tattoo-was-real-so-they-surrounded-his-house/"},"headline":"Police Thought This Man's Gun Tattoo Was Real So They Surrounded His House","datePublished":"2014-03-19T17:41:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:56.675Z","description":"Workers in the area thought it was the real deal","url":"https://time.com/30385/police-thought-this-mans-gun-tattoo-was-real-so-they-surrounded-his-house/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","Gun"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74e739fcb7402ee1/69868622cd6848d1cb093aae/gun-tattoo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt74e739fcb7402ee1/69868622cd6848d1cb093aae/gun-tattoo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gun-Tattoo","caption":"In this Tuesday, March 18, 2014, photo, Michael Smith, left, stands beside a Somerset County Sheriff deputy outside his home in Norridgewock, Maine.","creditText":"David Leaming / Morning Sentinel / AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/30385/police-thought-this-mans-gun-tattoo-was-real-so-they-surrounded-his-house/","name":"Police Thought This Man's Gun Tattoo Was Real So They Surrounded His House"}}]}] ```